Influence of Business Analytics Skills on Employability of Management Graduates

Abstract The fast pace of adoption of data-based decision-making has changed the competencies required from management graduates. Organizational demands now include not just knowledge of business principles but also competencies in collecting, analyzing, visualizing, interpreting and communicating data for management decisions. This study attempts to explore the impact of BA competencies on the employability of management graduates. The research proposes a conceptual model where technical analytics competency, statistics and analytics competency, data visualization competency, business intelligence competency and analytical communication competency impact graduate employability. The concept of employability includes job readiness, interview performance, job prospects, competence at work and career readiness. The suggested research methodology involves a quantitative survey approach that targets management graduates as well as final year management students. A structured Likert-scale questionnaire can be used to measure the constructs. The suggested analysis methods are descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression and structural equation modelling. An example data set has been provided in this paper only for demonstration of how the suggested statistical analysis and graph would look like and not that the values are real and have been taken from a sample. It has been found from the literature review that data modelling, statistical tools, visualization, forecasting, database, communication, project management and business are becoming more important for analytics jobs. Therefore, this paper suggests that incorporation of Business Analytics in management education curriculum would make management graduates more employable if combined with communication and business skills. Keywords: Business Analytics, Employability, Management Graduates, Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Visualization, Graduate Skills, Job Readiness, Management Education.